1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to sending and receiving facsimile documents via a facsimile machine, and more particularly to sending and receiving secure facsimile documents via a facsimile machine such that the receiving party cannot directly read the received facsimile document.
2. Description of Related Art
At present, when a standard facsimile (FAX) machine is utilized to send important, sensitive information, such as financial, legal, personal or sensitive business data, the intended receiving party may not be the only party/person who views the received FAX document. In many cases a received FAX document may be handled and viewed by FAX room personnel, hotel personnel, or various corporate staff members prior to the received FAX arriving in the hands of the intended recipient. Thus, the important, sensitive information on the received FAX document may be seen or reviewed by parties who should not be viewing the document. Having sensitive information viewed by unintended viewers could result in a tremendous negative impact on an individual or corporation.
The drawback of the standard system for sending and receiving FAX documents is that the intended FAX recipient does not need to be present when the FAX document is received and printed or displayed.
One technique for solving the problem is for the sender and intended recipient of the FAX document to arrange a mutually convenient time for sending/receiving the FAX document so that the intended recipient can wait by the FAX machine for the document to be received and printed. This will insure that the intended recipient is the only viewer of the received FAX document. A drawback of this solution is that it can be inconvenient for both parties to set up a mutually acceptable time. It is further inconvenient for a traveling party who is receiving a FAX document at a hotel, client""s business location, or, other location that is not in the control of the intended recipient.
What is needed is a method and/or apparatus for sending and receiving FAX documents in a manner that disables the ability of people, other than the intended recipient, from viewing the received FAX document.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus which allows a FAX document to be sent and received wherein the received FAX document cannot be interpreted by anyone casually glancing at it.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a FAXing system and method that provides a hard copy of a secure FAX that is not legible to a human, but that can be decoded by an intended recipient of the same FAX.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method for encrypting the body of a FAXed document and to provide an unencrypted heading on the received FAX document. The encrypted heading informs a FAX operator who the encrypted FAX is for.
These and other objects, which will become apparent after reading the specification and studying the drawings, are accomplished by encrypting the body of a document using a code provided by the sending party. An unencrypted header is provided. The unencrypted header and the encrypted body of the FAX document are FAXed as a normal FAX via a system capable of transmitting a FAX document. When the FAXed document is received, it may be printed out as a normal FAX. The receiving party, who may not be the intended recipient of the FAXed document, will not be able to read the encrypted body of the received FAX document. The receiving party will be able to read the unencrypted header. Via the header, the received FAX can be delivered to the intended recipient.
The intended recipient can scan the received encrypted FAX into a computer and provide a decode code. The computer, via software will decrypt the encrypted body of the received FAX document with the decode code to produce a facsimile of the original document for the intended recipient.